Word Origin & History

nose O.E. nosu, from P.Gmc. *nusus (cf. O.N. nös, O.Fris. nose, Du. neus, O.H.G. nasa, Ger. nase), from PIE *nas- (cf. Skt. nasa, O.Pers. naham, O.C.S. nasu, Lith. nosis, L. nasus "nose"). Used to indicate "something obvious" from 1591. The verb sense of "pry, search" first recorded 1648, from the noun. Pay through the nose (1672) seems to suggest "bleed.""Kiv, It could bee no other then his owne manne, that had thrust his nose so farre out of ioynte." ["Barnabe Riche His Farewell to Military Profession," 1581]Many extended senses are from the horse-racing sense of "length of a horse's nose," ...as a measure of distance between two finishers (1908). Nose-bleed first attested 1848. Nose cone in the space rocket sense is from 1949. Nose job "rhinoplasty" is from 1963; nose dive "sudden large decrease" is 1920, from airplane sense, first attested 1912. To turn up one's nose "show disdain" is from 1818 (earlier hold up one's nose, 1579); similar notion in look down one's nose (1921).